News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday she will ask Congress to approve another $400 million in aid for the Palestinian Authority (PA). "The United States is making unprecedented efforts to enlarge opportunities for the PA," she told an Aspen Institute conference in Washington. Secretary Rice maintained that "extraordinarily trying circumstances" have bred violence and terrorism.

The economy in the PA began to boom after the area was restored to Israel in 1967, and violence was rare until Yasser Arafat began orchestrated the first Intifada in the late 1980s.
 
Last year, Congress approved only $50 million aid for the PA. In addition, special aid was approved for training PA forces, but several Congressmen have expressed concern that arms and money will end up in the hands of terrorists.